Eitan Chitayat – OpenMoves Inc.http://openmoves.com
The E-Marketing PeopleMon, 14 Aug 2017 20:09:45 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5Remember Billhttp://openmoves.com/blog/for-bil/
Fri, 11 Sep 2015 08:55:01 +0000http://blog.openmoves.com/?p=1908I knew a guy. Just for a few months while working together, but long enough to call him a friend. We talked about his family, my international traveling (he didn’t do much of that), we worked, kidded around and hung …

]]>I knew a guy. Just for a few months while working together, but long enough to call him a friend. We talked about his family, my international traveling (he didn’t do much of that), we worked, kidded around and hung out. We also discussed Israel a lot since it was around the time of so many suicide bombings hitting my country.

He didn’t get how Israelis could live with such a constant threat of terrorism in our lives and expressed how far America felt from it all – and that it felt surreal. His name was Bill Weems and he was plain decent and cool. He was also a passenger on one of the planes steered mercilessly into the twin towers. This piece was made for him. For his family. For everyone who lost someone and anyone who didn’t. To remind us that individual lives, families and friendships were torn apart on 9/11, and the scores of murdered innocents that awful day don’t just make up a meaningless number. Yes, I didn’t know Bill a long time. But I’m glad I met him briefly, I’ll never forget him – and he’ll always be my friend.

I wanted the message to be spread through people…and to do it and remember what happened by highlighting something done in a creative and moving way. But a different way. Credit to Aniboom and Ga for coming up with the initiative, but the social media angle is my personal effort in addition to the animation.

Please test it for yourself on this Facebook “For Bill” page: You can Click Hereand change your profile pictures – to the ones i have there in the photo album. TAG your friends in the many photos and most importantly, change your pic to one of the characters for a few days and SHARE the photo album page so people see it on your news freed. i would also appreciate you just telling your friends about it. People forget the human aspect of 9/11. And that’s why I did this.

My contribution in the above is a part of the 9/11 it’s been 10 years initiative that was organized by Aniboom and Gideon Amichay. I worked with Birdo on the illustrations.

]]>Kotex’s Innovative Social Media Strategy Inspireshttp://openmoves.com/blog/innovative-social-media-strategy/
http://openmoves.com/blog/innovative-social-media-strategy/#respondFri, 10 Aug 2012 15:48:57 +0000http://blog.openmoves.com/?p=2957This Could Be You It’s hard to say something like, “once in a while a social media campaign comes along and revolutionizes the way brands engage with their consumers,” because that suggests social media has been around forever. It hasn’t. …

It’s hard to say something like, “once in a while a social media campaign comes along and revolutionizes the way brands engage with their consumers,” because that suggests social media has been around forever. It hasn’t. But that didn’t stop Kotex from already redefining the way a brand creates relationships with consumers in social media anyway – and on one of the most popular platforms around, no less. In fact, in my view, they’ve kind of set the bar.

A few months ago, Kotex launched a campaign called “Women’s Inspiration Day”. The idea was to find 50 women in Israel (who were very active on Pinterest) and see what inspired them. Once Kotex found out what these women really loved by following their “pins,” they created individual inspiration “packages” using what each woman had pinned on their Pinterest Boards. And then? Boom. They sent them gift boxes with every one of those inspirational items in it. Talk about personal and viral. People were pinning and blogging about it like crazy*.

Not bad, right?

Not bad at all.

Pinterest is the latest and greatest and, of course, tons of brands are leaving no stone unturned trying to see how they can best harness its powers and use it for their gain. But as many have noted, it’s not exactly built from the ground up for business like, say, Facebook is (or will be soon). This means that Pinterest is still wide open for any business to create and invent new, innovative ways to use it to engage their brand with customers in a very meaningful way.

And by meaningful I mean true. Because nowadays, more than ever in marketing perhaps, the truth counts for a heck of a lot. A truth is relevant no matter at what level you’re operating. That’s why, in the words of Eran Sion, eCommerce Director EMEA, “We discovered that it’s no longer interesting to advertise traditionally (banners, newspaper ads). In order to make people talk about your product, there should be a true dialogue between the brand and the consumer. And social media is the best platform to engage in this kind of dialogue.”

Well said.

The fact that a corporation like Kimberly Clarke initiated this campaign is beside the point. It could have been any business. It could have been another corporation or it could have been a mom and pop store around the corner from where you’re reading this online. It could even have been you (Yes, you). Brands are using social media and platforms like Facebook, G+ and Pinterest to reach out to their consumers because they want to be seen as real. Real people behind a company reaching out to real people who want to know they’re engaging with real, actual people who get them, get their needs, and get the way they think.

This initiative was by far the simplest yet — the smartest and most buzzworthy, too.

Hey, we’re writing about it, aren’t we?

Share your successes here! And let us know if we can help you kick start your social media strategy.

*Results: Almost all the recipients posted about what they got on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. There were 2,284 interactions and 694,853 total impressions for 50 boxes.

]]>http://openmoves.com/blog/innovative-social-media-strategy/feed/0Spreading Peace with Social Mediahttp://openmoves.com/blog/spreading-peace-with-social-media/
http://openmoves.com/blog/spreading-peace-with-social-media/#respondWed, 04 Apr 2012 20:33:16 +0000http://blog.openmoves.com/?p=2614Today’s online lifestyle extends our reach further than ever before. And we, who dabble in social media, professionally or otherwise, should see this ability to influence others as a serious responsibility. We can communicate with people across the world, past …

Today’s online lifestyle extends our reach further than ever before. And we, who dabble in social media, professionally or otherwise, should see this ability to influence others as a serious responsibility.

We can communicate with people across the world, past borders, right through cultures and in different languages. Social media has transformed every aspect of our personal interactions and daily life – from ecommerce to photo sharing and news finding.

As an online marketing professional, I find that the avenues and methods to reach consumers and an audience are easier than ever imagined in the traditional offline world. And I’ve been here for a while.

But, there’s a greater advantage and use of these abilities than just to promote a new product (yes, just), reach clients via emails or Facebook ads, landing pages and catered websites. And I think it’s important that we, as professionals, dedicate time to doing that. Being able to reach this great audience, we can send a message and use it not just for the financial success of our clients, but to better our world. It’s our responsibility to take advantage of these new avenues of communication and leverage them for good. In our own spare time. And I’m glad to say, it’s happening.

Look past the unfortunate incident of Jason Russell’s breakdown and see what he managed to achieve with Kony 2012. Global domination on YouTube! Then there was the recent Israel loves Iran campaign that was launched by two Israeli graphic designers that blew down doors in Iran and the world.

Here’s a story of a recent project I undertook, working with an international team to brand and build an online identity for a non-profit peace organization, and how we used the new media of YouTube, Facebook, and viral marketing, to get the message out. When Leonard Cohen, the singer, performed here in Israel a few years ago, he gave all the proceeds to help form The Fund for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace. They’re an organization committed to breaking through the deep psychological barriers that have stood between Palestinians and Israelis for decades.

I was approached by a friend who asked me to help deliver an aspirational and inspirational presentation that they could use to help them get across what the Fund stood for. But they didn’t yet have an identity. So along with developing their brand identity for them, I pitched a viscerally engaging animated video that asks viewers to imagine a future in which the region basks in peace.

Why? Because the people of Israel are going through grim times. Many have forgotten what peace actually could look like. And to hope for it, you have to know what you’re looking forward to. People don’t know what to hope for anymore, they simply can’t remember. The Palestinian side doesn’t seem to be faring any better. And our leaders, they don’t seem to get it.

I wanted to boil down the spirit of the Fund to one core message. A message that’s true to what they stand for – true to their identity. Along with Shelley and our teams, I wanted to show what peace SHOULD be and to help people visualize it. Because that’s what the Fund believes is possible – and they can see it.

It’s a simple animation but one that wasn’t simple to make. Over 150 people were involved transatlantically, from Brazil to NYC to Tel Aviv. Lobo, Birdo Studio, Firefly Productions, the Ebeling Group, Wicked Music and countless volunteers – all of us worked practically pro bono over the course of 2 years to deliver a message of hope that’s intended to touch people and make them wonder, if only for a moment: ‘Peace. What if?’

In the first week we managed to attract around 10,000 views to the YouTube channel with the help of friends, peers, and families. We asked everyone to simply share it via email, Twitter, and Facebook. Slowly, it’s making its way onto the screens of people everywhere — by the people, for the people.

These days, you can do that — as in, YOU. We can cross boundaries and communicate with people we don’t know in a way we’ve never been able to before. It’s simply the wonder of the world we live in today. If we can use it to propel forward a solemn wish for people, in the intimacy of their own homes, to help them believe again that peace is ahead of us – then let’s keep crossing boundaries. And let’s do it for all good causes.